Comparative Analysis of German, French and American Human Rights Law Essay

Comparative Analysis of German, French and American Human Rights Law - Essay Example This essay discusses that crucial importance of political rights and liberties in today’s evolving and fast-changing world cannot be overemphasized. It has been opined that political rights and liberties are of paramount importance because of their impact on other rights, such as social and economic rights. The universal condemnation of state-sponsored repression is due in large part to the globalized ideal of human rights where we see a whittling down of the concept of sovereignty in favor of the acceptance of international norms of human rights. Indeed, the protection of human rights is one of the fundamental aspirations of international law. In international law, the primacy of the State is the core principle of the international legal regime as it is traditionally known. It is the duty of international law, therefore, to interlock authority with power, and to ensure that authorized decision-makers regulate the actions of States. When the United Nations was created in 1948 by a world still reeling from the ravages of the Second World War and intent on healing the wounds wrought by it, it was tasked to become the primary agency in defining and advancing human rights. From then on, various other agencies were created, addressing specific human rights concerns. Notable examples of this are the International Labor Organization and the UNICEF. Within the jurisdiction of the individual states, however, human rights legislation evolves mainly as a result of case law, i.e., the jurisprudence based on decisions made by the Supreme Court on human rights disputes brought before it. Indeed, Indeed, society has come a long way towards preserving human rights, and righting the wrongs of the past with justice and accountability. Says Abrams and Ratner3: Societies long reluctant to investigate or prosecute human rights abusers have begun to do so with greater frequency. These include both those inquiring into the abuses of their own officials or former officials, as well as those investigating or prosecuting individuals who have committed abuses in other countries. This paper attempts to trace the role that case law has played in the legal systems of Germany, France and the United States with respect to the development and evolution of human rights. This paper shall also look into some of the more important and landmark decisions made in the respective jurisdictions and evaluate the degree to which these decisions have impacted on human rights. As the space for this paper is rather limited and the field of human rights is vast, this paper will focus on human rights law as it applies to freedom of religion and circumstances when it competes with the interests of the state to preserve certain values, e.g., neutrality and national security. Germany When people think of Germany and human rights law and religion, thoughts inevitably first turn to the end of the second world war, where Nazi soldiers had been prosecuted for gross war crimes committed against the Jews. The end of World War II ushered in a milestone for international criminal responsibility. The axis powers were completely annihilated and the allied powers were now determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past. It was only through punishing the guilty that the horrors and wounds of the victims could be assuaged. The allied states created the International Military Tribunal (IMT) for the prosecution of the men